


Dinner

by wutthequiznack (birbsandemidogs04)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Established Relationship, Fluff, Language, M/M, getting to know each other's families, i still love them, just one part where keith says fuck, klance, that's why it's rated teen, unfortunately
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:29:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23314666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/birbsandemidogs04/pseuds/wutthequiznack
Summary: Who the hell agreed to let Shiro cook dinner?// Keith and Lance get to know each other's families better... Lance has the easier job. All he has to do is get on Krolia's good side. Keith's got everyone but Veronica to introduce himself to. But he loves Lance, so he can do this. He's got this. Right?
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Kudos: 67





	1. Keith's family

**Author's Note:**

> side note: allura's death is briefly mentioned.

Lance is already familiar to Keith's whole family. The two people alive he considers family have met or seen Lance way before he and Keith got together. 

Initially, Shiro probably thinks the highest of Lance. In the beginning, he met Lance as a preteen, eager to start training to explore space one day. He was probably just a face in the crowd, like a lot of kids at the Galaxy Garrison. 

"Yeah, he was my hero," Lance would later confess to Keith. He'd look almost embarrassed admitting this, making Keith smile a little. "I, like, worshipped him."

So yeah, just another small, chubby-cheeked face in the crowd of tiny Shiro-worshippers. 

Then, of course, Voltron happened, which was the opportunity of a lifetime for Lance to train as a paladin alongside Shiro. 

"When he shook my hand at the shack, I was thinking this was my chance to show him what I could do." Lance continues, later. "I really wanted to be able to prove to him I was worth it, I guess."

"Is that why you kept showing me up and egging me on every chance you got?" Keith asks, annoyed but also somewhat amused, remembering the stupid competitions and fights.

"Yeah, that was most of the reason why," Lance grins, "But it was also because you were a stupid mullethead."

Keith shoves him. 

"But then I kinda just got caught up with being a paladin, and Shiro became more like a friend or an older brother to me. I dunno, I guess when you're with a group of people for a while, you see them as family. Like, even if Kim Kardashian were a paladin, I would start to see her as less of a celebrity after awhile." 

Keith laughs. "Yeah."

Shiro and Lance really got closer after Allura's death--Shiro being one of few people Lance knew to have lost a significant other in the fight. Shiro's advice after the fact went a long way in the forging of Lance's own identity with the rubble of his old self. 

Plus, knowing Keith pretty well, Shiro was instrumental in getting him and Lance together. 

"He helped me figure out how strong I can be, after Allura died," Lance adds, "I was surprised how much of me I was missing. And, like, he made me realize I can love again."

Suffice to say, Shiro approves of Lance. 

Krolia's a different story. 

"My mom knew you before she met you," Keith says, a reminiscent smirk on his face as he regards Lance, "I think she genuinely hated you before she even knew who you are."

The flashes to the past and future on the Quantum Abyss whales certainly didn't look good for Lance. 

The first flash involving Lance was one from the future, showing Lance and Allura in the bleary glowing atmosphere of the Astral Plane, parting ways for the last time. Keith didn't know any of the context at that point in time, but his heart plunged just seeing Lance and Allura kiss. 

"Who are they?" Krolia asked after the vision had passed. 

"Two of the other paladins," Keith replied, "Princess Allura and Lance."

"The Altean princess? Hmm." 

"Yup." Keith said, rushed and choppy. 

"One of them is special to you, aren't they?"

Keith was throwing sticks for the blue dog and didn't answer straightaway. 

"Which one?"

"It doesn't matter now." Keith said heavily. The dog licked his hand. "Whether I tell you or not, that's the future, so that's what's gonna happen and I can't stop it."

His heart was blistering. 

"It's Lance, isn't it?"

  
"Yeah. It is." Keith said. "But can we just concentrate on the mission, please?"

When he looked over at his mother, he found her staring at their fire. "He chooses her over you? How?"

"It's hard to explain. And I don't really feel like talking about it, okay?"

"Fine." Krolia said without another word. 

The next time she saw Lance, it was in a flashback. In the flashback, Keith and Lance were on the castleship, bickering about something. 

"I think she only saw _Lance_ picking a fight with _me._ " Keith remarks later. "Maybe because she was trying to get to know me better or something, and make me like her more?"

"Yeah, she hated my guts." Lance adds. 

Keith could tell as much when they came back to the team. The amount of disdain in Krolia's face and irritation in her voice when telling Lance to be quiet proved to Keith that she didn't approve of Lance at all. That did not make Keith like her any better. 

"But I acted like her when we got back, too." Keith recalls. "I basically gave you the cold shoulder. So maybe she was doin' the right thing."

"Not to me!" Lance cries in outrage. "I thought your mom was gonna just haul off and kill me so many times..."

"She thinks you're okay now," Keith reassures him. 

"Yeah, right." 

That's what this family dinner thing is supposed to prove: whether or not Lance is accepted as Keith's significant other. Or, if he isn't, this is a chance to get on Krolia's good side.

\---------------------

Whoever let Shiro cook or convinced him he can should be located and fed the dinner that resulted of his cursed hands. 

Keith wrinkles his nose at the smell coming from the kitchen as he goes to open the front door for his mother. 

"Hello, Keith," she nods politely, stepping through the door. 

Lance quickly scrambles off the living room couch to greet her as well. 

"Hi, Krolia. It's nice to see you again."

He holds out a hand to shake and after a beat, Krolia takes it. She seems a little surprised. 

"Likewise, Lance."

"Uh, listen,"

Lance steals forward a bit, ducking his head. Keith watches curiously. 

"I kinda get the feeling we might have gotten off on the wrong foot the first time we met, or I haven't made that great of an impression on you."

Keith can hear the fear in his voice. It's endearing. 

"So, uh, I just want to apologize and ask that we start over?" Lance finishes, trembling and unable to meet Krolia's eyes. 

Keith doesn't miss the way Krolia glances at him in surprise before turning back to Lance with the tiniest smile on her face. 

"Sure," she replies. 

Lance looks up in awe, before grinning quite madly. "Really?! Yes!"

He brings a victorious fist down through the air, a glimpse at teenage Lance at his finest. 

"All right, I'm Keith's boyfriend, so I'm obliged to ask: do you have any embarrassing baby photos of Keith?"

Keith watches Lance lead her to the living room, his breath cut off in wait to hear the answer to this question. It might ruin the evening depending on which way she approaches it. The cold and bitter, "No, I don't, because I haven't really been Keith's mom for the first 18 years of his life" would be apocalyptically bad. 

"I don't have many," Krolia says, "but I do have a few that I carry on me at all times. You'd have to scout the house to find any photos of Keith as a child."

Keith's attempt to rush in and save face is interrupted by a wheezy coughing coming from the kitchen. 

When he skids in, Kosmo at his heels, to see what happened, he's met by Shiro in an apron, waving his hands desperately to dispel the grey vapour in the air. 

"What the hell, Shiro?!" Keith gasps. 

Kosmo has since teleported away. Smart wolf. 

Shiro's head retracts from the oven and he flashes a convincing smile. "Keith! Hey! What are you doing, the food's not ready yet. Is Krolia here?"

"Yeah. Lance is bugging her about baby pictures." Keith bemoans, perching on the edge of a table. "What are you making?"

"Uhhh..." 

Shiro looks into the oven again. "Lasagna?"

"It smells burnt," Keith grimaces. 

"Yep." Shiro nods sagely. He slowly begins to remove his oven mitts. "That's because it is."

\-------------------------

Lance's plan to order pizza is backed up by everyone. So they all end up sitting on the porch of the old shack while the fumes of Shiro's failed lasagna air out of the windows.

"You ever had pizza before, Krolia?" Lance asks, tilting his head around a long, stringy slice. 

"She almost killed the pizza delivery guy." Keith points out. 

"I thought he was a threat," Krolia explains, calmly but defensively. "But, no, Lance. I have never tried pizza before."

"Do you like it?" Shiro asks, on his second slice. 

"It's interesting." is all Krolia replies. 

"Next time, we're for sure getting Hunk to cook for us." Lance says. "Because Shiro almost set the house on fire."

"Hey!" Shiro exclaims, feigning offense. He then lightly shoves at Lance with his elbow, setting them both off laughing so hard their eyes close. In that moment, Keith can't help but stare over at Lance, his love for the man written all over his face. Krolia, being not an idiot, witnesses this, and any lingering grudge she held against Lance slowly floats away. Anyone who can bring about that look in her son's eyes is just right for him. 

\-------------------------

That night, once Krolia and Shiro have gone and Lance is about to leave too, he and Keith sit on the porch together. Well, Keith joins Lance in watching the stars. 

  
"I think you're officially in my mom's good book," Keith says, crouching down to sit near Lance and bringing his hands to his knees. 

Lance looks up, starting to smile. "Yeah? I'd hoped so."

He lends a hand to Keith, watching the way their fingers automatically intertwine. "Then again, no mother can resist my charms."

Keith rolls his eyes. "Yeah, _that's_ why she changed her mind about you."

"Look, you're gonna have a much easier time with my mom. I think she _already_ loves you. I had to _fight_ for your mom's approval." Lance complains. 

"Poor you." Keith grins. He shifts to consider the stars above them. 

"They're beautiful, huh?" Lance murmurs as he brings Keith's hand up to kiss the back of it, skin rough with calluses. 

Keith eyes him sideways, love bursting in his chest, eyes half-lidded. "Yeah."

"You think these are the same stars we saw from the Castleship?"

"Probably," Keith shrugs, "I dunno."

"Hey, look. Over there!" Lance exclaims suddenly, pointing up and to the right. 

Keith looks and sees a red and blue star clustered together at the edge of the sleek navy blue blanket of sky. He recognizes them vaguely, having seen them before in the Astral Plane. Back then he'd balked at the crummy irony--that he and Lance were meant to be, maybe--but here they are together, looking up at the stars as a couple. Then again, the stars could just as soon have meant Allura and Lance. 

"I saw them before, in the Astral Plane," is all he says.

"Think they mean somethin'? Red and blue paladins?"

Lance nudges at him, smiling fondly. There's humour in his voice. 

"Maybe." Keith says. Maybe not. They're just stars, after all.


	2. Lance's Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance's family is intimidating... hopefully the size of it is the only intimidating thing about it.

Keith's nervous about meeting Lance's family. There's so much of it--plus, he's not comfortable coming in after Allura. 

Keith and Lance had decided to have the dinner at Lance's house, including Lance's niece and nephew, all his siblings, and his parents and grandparents.

"What should I wear?" Keith asks over the phone the afternoon of the dinner, scrabbling through his moth-eaten closet. The only two formal outfits he has in there are his dad's old clothes, and, well, he doesn't want to have to wear those. 

"I don't know--wear something nice. Don't you have anything nice?" is Lance's patient reply. 

"What does nice _mean?_ "

Keith's voice breaks. He buries a hand in his hair, anguished. "Like suit and tie? I don't have that, Lance."

"Well, what _do_ you have? Don't tell me you only have like one outfit."  
Keith grits his teeth, staying silent. 

"You're kiddin' me, right?"

"No. I mean, like, come on. Who needs more than one kinda outfit?"

Keith squeezes his forehead, vexed. 

"All right. Prepare yourself, baby, because you're about to experience the one and only Lance McClain Shopping Spree."

Despite his stress, Keith can't deny Lance a flustered grin. 

\-----------------

The Space Mall, still standing (or, floating) is just as Keith and Lance remember it, huge and teeming with aliens. Keith meets his boyfriend, frankly not too encouraged. 

"Hey, babe," Lance greets him at the giant clock near the entrance. "So. You ready?"

"Look, I try not to shop if I can help it," Keith quickly informs him, "so let's make this fast."

"Muy rápido. Got it."

Lance nods. "We'll need to see at least four stores, though."

" _Four?!_ Why so many?!" Keith demands, anguished. 

"Hey, you want a nice outfit to wow my family? Take it from me. We'll need at _least_ four stores."

"Ugh, fine." Keith grumbles, but when Lance reaches to grab his hand, it all becomes worth it. 

\-----

They go to five stores. And Keith really wants to hate the Lance McClain Shopping Spree, but he can't, precisely because it's all Lance. There's a moment when they're trying on clothes at the same time and Lance grins at him, wearing a vest that he claims makes him look like some TV show character, and Keith just stares. That feeling of _holy crap how is he mine_ washes over him again. And then he catches a glimpse of Lance's bare chest when he removes the vest and nearly faints on the spot. 

Eventually, after four grueling hours of labour and boredom and sweating, both Lance and Keith have got something new to wear. And Keith's actually okay with his. 

\------

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, it's actually happening," Keith mutters to himself as he approaches the door to Lance's place. 

He knocks frantically and Lance answers almost immediately, smiling at him around the door. A tempting smell darts out of the house. 

"Keith! You're early!"

Keith steals forward to kiss him, then steps back, hands shaking. "I-I'm nervous. I know I'm early, but can I just stay here until your family gets here?"

"Aw, the samurai's nervous?" Lance teases, but opens the door wider so Keith can step through. "Okay, come in. Hunk's in the kitchen--he won't tell me what he's cooking, so don't bother asking."

Keith rushes past him and starts biting his nails in the hallway. "How much time now?"

Lance checks his watch. "Uhh... about fifteen minutes? Give or take. My parents and Veronica will probably be ten minutes early. Everyone but Rachel and Marco will be on time, most likely."

Keith's eyes widen. "Your parents will be here in five minutes?!"

Lance laughs a little at his panicked state. "Don't worry! Everyone's gonna like you. Besides, you already met Roni at the Garrison."

The doorbell rings then and Keith starts to hyperventilate as Lance runs to get the door. He can barely move as faint voices draw nearer--he recognizes one of them as Veronica's.

In fact, she's the first family member to approach him in the hallway. She looks nice, he observes, out of Garrison uniform. Her hair is styled the same way as usual but she's wearing a brown sweater with a blue scarf and jeans. He can see why Acxa gets so flustered around her. 

"Hey, Keith," she says, smiling. She surprises him by pulling him into a brief hug. "How's it going?"

Keith nods. "I'm good. Uh, how's the Garrison?"

Small talk. Hell at its finest. 

She nods back. "Nice. It's cool to see how many kids are eager to learn stuff."

That was what Shiro said, too, before he retired. 

The conversation is about to lull into nothingness, he can tell, when Veronica leans in slightly. "I had a feeling about you two." 

She grins in a Lance kind of way. 

Keith's face burns. "Uh-"

"I'd get to talking to my parents, if I were you." she finishes, patting his shoulder and rushing away. 

Keith swallows and obeys, seeing Lance engaged in an emphatic discussion with his parents in the living room, entirely in Spanish. Luckily, Lance spots him before he has to awkwardly insert himself into the conversation. 

"Keith, c'mere." he beckons. 

The expectant gazes from both of the parents make Keith feel like he's under a heat lamp. He wonders whether his outfit is too much or too little. 

"Mami; Dad--this is Keith, my boyfriend." Lance announces proudly. His hand hovers over the small of Keith's back. Keith forces himself to shake first Lance's mother's hand, then his father's. 

"Hola," he says to both, hoping he's smiling in a way that makes him seem approachable. 

"Hola," both repeat, and both seem pleasantly surprised. 

"It's nice to meet you, Keith," Lance's mother adds. "Lance has told us so much about you."

"He left out the part where you can speak Spanish," Lance's father interjects. 

"Actually, sir, I only know a few words." Keith explains sheepishly. 

Lance tilts his head, studying his boyfriend. He hadn't know about the Spanish _at all._ It's endearing that Keith would learn Spanish for this--even just a "hello". Lance's mother and father both smile at Keith, probably thinking the same thing. 

"Why don't I get us some drinks?" Lance suggests, eager to leave Keith alone to swim without floaties. 

"Not alcohol, I hope, mi amor _,_ " his mother calls after him, but he's already disappeared into the kitchen. 

Keith smiles nervously at Lance's parents, clearing his throat into the lull in the conversation. 

"So, Keith." Lance's mother calls back his attention. "What is it you do?"

Keith swallows and prepares himself. 

\------

Dinner starts about ten minutes later, once everyone has shown up. Keith meets every last family member. He endures Lance's twin Rachel's open flirting with him, which she claims is a test to prove Keith's loyalty to Lance; Lance's niece and nephew's various questions ranging from curiosity about Space and being a paladin to the more intrusive, "Why is your hair like that?"; and what Keith hopes are unintentionally offensive questions about his relationship to Lance. 

Hunk appears as they are all seated, to deliver each course--Keith thanks God to be sitting next to Lance, although Sylvio is seated on his other side and keeps kicking the table. As soon as he can, Keith takes Lance's hand under the table, sinking into the grounding feeling it gives him, catching the look Lance gives him when he does. 

\------

Afterwards, once only Keith and Lance remain, Lance has to stop Keith halfway through getting his motorcycle helmet on. 

"Wait! Where you going?" Lance says, a slight grin on his face. His hair is windswept and he's got a light yellow stain on his button-down shirt--probably from the mashed potatoes. 

Keith's paused to look at him, dragging his helmet back down into his hands. He gives a small shrug. "Sorry, I-I don't know."

"Don't run away yet. C'mere." Lance beckons to his side, moves to sit on the front porch steps. 

The night is the same as it had been that night at Keith's. 

Keith follows his boyfriend, jogging to keep up, helpless to resist. His helmet tucks into his hip, his other hand nestling into his pocket as he sits on the step directly below Lance. 

"So that dinner didn't go as badly as I thought it would," Lance remarks once Keith's sitting down, his cologne a breath on the wind. He's smirking at Keith as he reaches to undo his ponytail, but Keith whips his head around before the ponytail holder can come out. 

" _What?_ I thought you had faith in me!" he bursts out, offended. 

"Relax, man. I mean, it wasn't gonna be a walk in the park. I have a big family. I didn't think everyone was gonna like you." 

Lance resumes his work on Keith's hair, removing the ponytail holder and slipping it onto his wrist like it was made to go there. Keith lets his eyes flutter closed as Lance's hands msooth over the strands. There's nobody he'd rather have in his hair. Any and all indignance fades from his mind. 

"But I didn't want to freak you out or anything by telling you that straight up." Lance adds. 

"Hmm. They liked me, though, right?" 

Keith's eyes remain closed as he allows his head to be gently pulled backwards. Lance's hands are like molten gold sliding through his unruly hair. He's almost being put to sleep. Some last dregs of anxiety remain, though.

"Yeah, I think most of them liked you."

Lance says it so nonchalantly that it doesn't startle Keith initially--only a few seconds later. 

" _Most_ of them? Which ones _don't_ like me?"

"Dude, you gotta chill. It's okay. Look, this wasn't your last chance to impress anyone or anything." Lance says, laughing. "You definitely impressed my siblings. I think just the fact that you were a paladin with me really helped you tonight."

Keith groans a little, his forehead tensing. "What about your parents?" 

"They like you." Lance answers, shrugging vaguely when Keith looks up. "I mean, they don't _not_ like you."

He leans down to nudge at Keith's ear with his lips as he murmurs,

"They were impressed by your Spanish, though. And so was I."

Keith reddens, but smiles. "Uh, it was nothing."

"Look, don't think let impressing them stress you out too much."

"I mean, they _are_ your family..." Keith trails off when he loses his train of thought as Lance continues to massage his scalp. But Lance seems to catch on. 

"No, Keith, come on. _I_ like you, and that's enough for me for now."

There's a rush of air when he sweeps down to kiss Keith's neck--it eases Keith's mind for now. 

"They'll learn to love you, like I did." Lance adds, a note of humour in his voice. 

"Wow." Keith says monotonously, but he reaches back to pull both of Lance's arms to rest around his chest. 

He's chosen the best dumbass in the universe to love.

\----------------------

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this last year in a state of bitterness as to how the show ended. i recently discovered it stored away somewhere, and in reading it i found that familiar joy i always used to have writing fanfictions about these two. this is one of my favourites; semi-unfinished. but it made me laugh and feel happy and reminisce on klance, so i hope it does the same for whoever chances upon it. :) this might be the last fanfic of these boys that i post here.


End file.
